5 YEARS AGO TODAY, Sen. Edward Moore Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, died at his home in Hyannis Port, at age 77. The headlines: WashPost, “End of an American Epoch … For 5 Decades, A Staple of Life in D.C. … His Life’s Work, Up to the End” … N.Y. Times, “Senator Kennedy, Battle Lost, Is Hailed as a Leader: Causes Defined Him, Even at End” … USA Today, “Through generations, an indelible mark on the USA” … L.A. Times, “Kennedy’s deal-making skills are missed as his party struggles to reach its goals” … The Boston Globe bannered a quote from President Obama: “The extraordinary good that he did lives on” … Boston Herald, “The one and only.” See the front pages, thanks to the Newseum. http://bit.ly/1BUi0Pg

EXCLUSIVE – Release out later today: “[L]ead attorney Tony Buzbee announced the addition of Mark Fabiani to Governor Rick Perry's legal team. Mark Fabiani joins Buzbee, Ben Ginsberg, Justice Tom Phillips, Bobby Burchfield and David Botsford. ‘I'm proud to join Gov. Perry's outstanding team which has been assembled to fight back against this attack on the rule of law,’ Mark Fabiani said. … Fabiani is former Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton, and former Deputy Campaign Manager for communications and strategy for former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign.”

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-- SINCE YOU ASKED: Mark is doing this on his own, and not in conjunction with his partner, Chris Lehane.

FIRST LOOK: The DSCC this week launches a high-six-figure, national digital campaign leveraging Leader McConnell's comments to Manu Raju last week about his plans if he were to become majority leader, which would include challenging Obama on spending in a way that could result in a government shutdown. The online campaign is highly targeted, aimed at mobilizing potential donors and volunteers to support Democratic field programs in a dozen battleground states. See a sample of the online ad.http://bit.ly/1wrHP9d

JOE SCARBOROUGH monologue on “Morning Joe,” re police militarization: “Michael Brown's funeral is going to be held today. His father is pleading for calm, Mika. Obviously, it's going to be very important as we move forward today after a brutal month that there is calm. … [T]his has been such a long, hot, tragic summer for this country and for Ferguson, and especially August. It's been a brutal, hot August. You got the protests, you've had the riots, you've had the police overreacting in a lot of cases. And you've had race. You've also had police brutality … the wounds to those things ripped open on the world stage. And you know what's so tragic, Mika? It didn't have to be this way. …

“[W]hen you get a place where there are 50 white cops out of 53 and only three black cops in a community that is overwhelmingly black, that's not community policing. That sounds more like apartheid in South Africa in this small town. … We had Paul Ryan on the other day talking about how welfare strips away the dignity of people. I've said it before: Let's have that debate. But if we're going to debate about culture, then why do we debate about a police culture? …

“[Y]ou got the federal government that is passing out a lot of equipment. … Military-grade body armor. Mine-resistant trucks. Silencers. Automatic rifles. And here is the thing -- they are given with no strings attached. … But, more importantly, they are giving them without training. … I got to say -- I'm growing so tired of these excuses that right wing commentators are making for this. And I really salute Rand Paul. … I even salute Ted Cruz. … Because there are conservatives that are talking about this. They are talking about how there's unequal justice.”

RISING-STAR DEMS GO ROGUE, BUCK FEDS -- Alex Burns: "In scattered state capitals and city halls around the country, a new group of elected officials is telling the federal government to take a hike: Up-and-coming Democrats. … They're defying the feds chiefly on social policy, with immigration and drug enforcement the key flash points of 2014. Democratic mayors in cities such as Los Angeles and Philadelphia, as well as governors, including Maryland's Martin O'Malley, have recently announced they will no longer cooperate with certain detainment requests from immigration authorities in Washington.” http://politi.co/VKqiIp

NEW SECRETS COMING SOON FROM CLINTON LIBRARY -- Josh Gerstein in Little Rock: “It is a lingering mystery of Bill Clinton's White House: the genesis of the ‘don't ask, don't tell’ policy … But soon, this and other secrets … at the Clinton Presidential Library may be unlocked. What did the Justice Department say about all the random requests for pardons? What kind of advice came from Clinton staffers such as now-Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan? What strategic thoughts were offered to the president and first lady Hillary Clinton on terrorism, Whitewater and health care reform?” http://politi.co/XLJTK4

DAMAGE COULD TOP $1b -- “Winemakers evaluate Napa earthquake damage,” by San Francisco Chronicle’s Jon Bonné: “Sunday's earthquake in Napa jolted 900-pound wine barrels from racks, damaged winery buildings and warehouses, and smashed bottles of the valley's best - a painful hit for an industry already struggling with the most severe drought in decades. … At Napa Barrel Care, a large warehouse for wine storage just south of the city, Carole Meredith and her husband Steve Lagier surveyed an array of tumbled barrels. … ‘There is a lake of wine on the floor,’ Meredith said. … Because the 2013 vintage was a particularly bountiful one, and many wines have yet to be released, the quake's impact may not be felt by wine consumers immediately.” http://bit.ly/1pX9ZE7

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WORTH THE CLICK -- LETTER FROM JIM FOLEY, per his Facebook page: “All letters Jim wrote to his family during his captivity were confiscated by the jailers. So, Jim devised a better approach this last June: he asked a fellow hostage about to be released to commit a letter to memory. Very soon after his release, this hostage called Diane and dictated what follows.” See the letter.http://on.fb.me/1p7vMdb

APOLOGIES FOR A COUPLE OF BAD LINKS in yesterday’s Playbook. Here are the correct ones: "Was U.S. Journalist Steven Sotloff a Marked Man?" by The Daily Beast's Ben Taub http://thebea.st/YUlwKi ... "America in Decay: The Sources of Political Dysfunction," by Francis Fukuyama in Foreign Affairs http://fam.ag/1lrCyd1

MAYOR OF THE WORLD – “Bloomberg’s Harder Sell: Stepping up his philanthropy, he still pushes big ideas, but on a much wider stage. Turkey’s smoking rate is just one of his targets,” by Landon Thomas Jr., on NYT Sunday Business cover: “Bloomberg, 72, has vowed to give away his $32.8 billion fortune before he dies. In doing so, he hopes to sharply reduce high smoking rates in Turkey, Indonesia and other countries; bring down obesity levels in Mexico; reduce traffic in Rio de Janeiro (and Istanbul); improve road safety in India and Kenya; prevent deaths at childbirth to mothers in Tanzania; and organize cities worldwide to become more environmentally friendly … His vehicle … is Bloomberg Philanthropies, a foundation that … now employs about 30 people with programs in 95 countries.” http://nyti.ms/1ruiCc2

DEEP DIVE -- “The Mystery Woman Who Runs Our Economy: Janet Yellen is changing the Fed in profound ways. Sure wish we knew what she had in mind,” by Michael Hirsh for Politico Magazine: “It’s not that Janet Yellen is mysterious by nature. She’s a regular person from Brooklyn. She has an open face and a warm smile and, as her predecessor Ben Bernanke told me recently, ‘more of the common touch than I did.’ She also has a decade-long pedigree serving in various jobs at the U.S. Federal Reserve. … Seven months into her tenure, her favorite locution so far appears to be some form of ‘we don’t know.’ … She is also being cagey about how much she intends to fulfill the Fed’s broad new role as stern overseer of the U.S. economy—and master of Wall Street.” http://politi.co/XLdZgG

AIR WAR -- “The Kochs' commercial appeal,” by Daniel Lippman: “The Koch brothers are showing up in so many campaign ads for Democrats, you’d think they were on the ballot. … The commercials are full of images designed to make ordinary Americans bristle, from private jets to limousines to handshakes in dark rooms. They often feature the same images of Charles and David Koch in blazers and ties — portraits that could have appeared in the billionaires issue of Forbes magazine. … Koch defenders say Democrats and their allies are bashing the brothers because they can’t win on the issues, but their opponents argue the Kochs are the perfect foil at a time of persistent economic anxiety.” With video montagehttp://politi.co/1vdEn0m

TECH WATCH – WashPost 2-col. lead, “Cellphones used as secret trackers: SYSTEMS GATHER GLOBAL LOCATION DATA – Firms market technology to foreign governments,” by Craig Timberg: “Makers of surveillance systems are offering governments across the world the ability to track the movements of almost anybody who carries a cellphone, whether they are blocks away or on another continent. The technology works by exploiting an essential fact of all cellular networks: They must keep detailed, up-to-the-minute records on the locations of their customers to deliver calls and other services to them.” http://wapo.st/1p7w8QQ

MEDIAWATCH – New York mag, “The Matter of TIME: What should a magazine company be now? The most storied one in America has to come up with an answer fast,” by Gabriel Sherman: “Time Inc. titles still generate remarkable cash flows— InStyle sells more ad pages than Condé Nast’s Vogue, and People brought in more than $600 million in revenue last year. But while the company claims that none of its titles lose money, it has seen earnings fall by nearly 65 percent since 2006. The number of advertising pages in the flagship Time has dwindled by 50 percent over the past five years. Even People is sputtering: Newsstand sales slid 12 percent last year, and the news budget has been cut in half. Layoffs have become an annual rite. In the past four years, Time Inc. has churned through three CEOs and endured nine months during which there was no single executive running the company.” http://nym.ag/1p51Ng2

--N.Y. Times Business Day front, “NBC News President [Deborah Turness] Rouses the Network,” by Bill Carter: “Patricia Fili-Krushel, the chairwoman of the NBCUniversal News Group, conducted a broad search to find a leader to fix the wounded division, which employs 2,000 people. … NBC had a long run as the dominant news network, but ABC’s surge has put an end to that. CBS continues to trail in the morning and evening, though it now wins on Sunday mornings. Defying most network trends, all three evening newscasts are up this season, with NBC posting its best viewer totals since 2006, an average of 8.9 million, up 6 percent.

“Ms. Fili-Krushel identified Ms. Turness, who had earned a reputation for high-spirited leadership during her nine years as one of the top news executives for the British network ITN. One former colleague, who asked not to be identified because of possible future business with NBC, said Ms. Turness brought ‘a bit of rock-chick swagger to a newsroom full of middle-aged men.’” http://nyti.ms/1BULMU5

--CHUCK TODD, on “Today,” re his “Meet the Press” debut on Sept. 7: “I think the job for all of us -- particularly in political reporting -- is to demystify Washington for the American public, but then also try to translate the American public’s frustrations for out of touch Washington people … When things are going well in the political journalism world, it’s because we’re playing that role of basically being the translator, being the interpreter between America and Washington.” --Kendall Breitman

--“CNN chief: News operation will do less with less,” by Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Matt Kempner and J. Scott Trubey – CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker, “during a call-in to a news meeting Tuesday morning”: “We now have a sense of what Turner is expecting from CNN. … This will result in changes and what we do and what we stop doing. We need to continue to protect what we’ve been doing so brilliantly for the last few months. … On the other hand, we are faced with reality, we are going to have to do what we do with less. As a result, that means there will be changes. … You will hear from your manager in the next week or so. … We are going to do less and have to do it with less. As difficult as this message is to share, I thought it was important to be transparent.” http://on-ajc.com/1mHM0Ee

WEEKEND WEDDINGS – “Elizabeth Tunick, Andrew Cedar,” N.Y. Times: “[The couple] was married Saturday evening … Mrs. Cedar, 31, is a program manager for international relations at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where she advises foreign governments on development and business strategies for museums and cultural institutions. She graduated cum laude from Dartmouth and received a master’s degree in art history from Williams College. … Mr. Cedar, 30, is to begin the second year of the M.B.A. program at Harvard next month. Until August 2013 he was a senior director on the National Security Council staff at the White House. The groom graduated summa cum laude from Yale and received a master’s degree in international relations from Cambridge University.” With pichttp://nyti.ms/1nsucNq

--“Erum Jilani, Gregory Whitten,” N.Y. Times: “Erum Rubina Jilani and Gregory Hartley Whitten were married Friday evening at the Biltmore Ballrooms, an event space in Atlanta. Imam M. Jamal Daudi performed a Muslim ceremony. The bride, 32, works in Washington as an Asia Pacific adviser in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. She graduated from Parsons the New School for Design in New York and received a master’s of public administration from Harvard. … The groom, 30, works in Washington as a director of strategy and plans for the Department of Defense in the office of the Defense secretary. He graduated from the University of Arizona.” http://nyti.ms/1lr9vqc

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Authors:

About The Author

Mike Allen is the chief White House correspondent for POLITICO. He comes to us from Time magazine where he was their White House correspondent. Prior to that, Allen spent six years at The Washington Post, where he covered President Bush's first term, Capitol Hill, campaign finance, and the Bush, Gore and Bradley campaigns of 2000. Before turning to national politics, he covered schools and local governments in rural counties outside Fredericksburg, Va., for The Free Lance-Star, then wrote about Doug Wilder, Oliver North, Chuck Robb and the Bobbitts for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, where he nurtured police sources on overnight ride-alongs through housing projects. Allen also covered Mayor Giuliani, the Connecticut statehouse and the wacky rich of Greenwich for The New York Times. Before moving to The Times, he did stints in the Richmond and Alexandria bureaus of The Washington Post. Allen grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has a B.A. from Washington and Lee University, where he majored in politics and journalism.